By Jase Walker
I was genuinely trying to be a bit more picky for shows this year and February has most definitely shown me to be completely full of shit because I’ve only hopped on the train down to Eindhoven in the middle of the week for a show again. I could not resist this particular lineup though because I’m currently in the throes of a midwest emo shaped hole and a tour package headlined by Arm’s Length, who arguably upstaged Hot Mulligan when I saw them last, supported by KOYO, Ben Quad and Shoreline is probably one of the fattest lineups for upcoming bands ever.
So grab your flannel shirt and loafers because we’re about to get stuck into some bloody fine emo tonight that’d make even the hardiest of metalheads spontaneously sprout a five o’clock shadow/moustache combo out of nowhere and develop a strong preference for 8mm cameras.
First up tonight is Shoreline, whom I saw last time with Spanish Love Songs and made a pretty big splash so I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve got to kick off with!
They’re off to a real strong start with lashings of young, brash punk energy that echoes the pop-punk greats that have paved the way such as Alkaline Trio, AFI, Blink-182 but tinged with that heavier side to really drive the bigger moments. I do notice that they’re keeping between song time to a super minimum and I check the stage times for a moment and I can see how tight the switchover looks to be so little wonder they’re focusing on banging out as much as they can. Nevertheless, a brief moment is taken to champion rallying against bigotry and protecting the space for oppressed peoples however before continuing on to close their brief but fantastically enjoyable set.
These young lads have got the right vibe and clearly have a long path ahead of them but the quality of music and super entertaining live show will no doubt carry them down it at a strong pace. They’ve enjoyed a pretty packed out room to boot so the upcoming November show will no doubt see a fair amount of tonight’s crowd returning to catch them again.
- Shoreline’s new album, ‘Is This The Low Point Or The Moment After?‘ will be released on 13 March via Pure Noise Records.
Ben Quad are up next with a quick introduction about them being a little sick so a brief apology to start, because it’s tour tradition apparently! They open with my literal favourite song of theirs and I couldn’t be happier: ‘We’re Gonna Be Here For A While’ is one of my go-to sparkly emo songs that I always introduce people to the band with. You wouldn’t believe these guys are feeling a bit sick considering how much they’re jumping around the stage while playing some sublime mathy shit like that though! To say I’ve been looking forward to seeing these guys is a pretty massive understatement.
They manage to get the room to part as they play one of the most sparkly blastbeat segments ever, whoever said math rock playing can’t go hard as fuck? Getting to the end of the set I’m suddenly blindsided by Super Mario 64 waterworld music blasting over the PA while their singer talks over him having to faff about re-tuning the guitar before playing the final song. I’ve been super engrossed by this set though… it’s not like I’ve been waiting about four years to see them or anything, honest.
Seemingly something’s gone super wrong with the pedal board of one of the guitarists and it looks like they’ve just made it in time for the final song. It doesn’t stop there because the strap completely gives way for a brief moment but he doesn’t stop playing and jams it into his armpit while a stage tech frantically reconnects it and follows up with duct tape to secure it. This set has been anything but uneventful and hopefully Ben Quad have heard the signal loud and clear that they need to get their arses back over as soon as possible!
KOYO suddenly kicks off and I’m scrambling to find my earplugs because holy shit that was super loud! Anyway, they’re off and into it and the front of the crowd is immediately getting stuck in and bouncing around with someone immediately trying to stage dive into what looks to be a somewhat unsuspecting group of people, whoops.
Admittedly I’m not quite as into this as the others as KOYO lean a bit more into the super fast energetic hardcore side of things which doesn’t really scratch the itch for me however I can’t say the same for the vast majority of the audience who are clearly fucking buzzing off it. Their singer’s clearly loving the fact that there’s people down the front that are screaming the words back at him as he enthusiastically jams the mic in their faces to give them a spot.
To KOYO’s credit, they’ve kept the energy for their set at a pretty consistent high from the start all the way to the finish and there’s barely anyone in the room that isn’t enthusiastically jumping around and looking like they’re having a pretty fantastic time the whole way. The band themselves mirror this and are feeding off the crowd’s energy, giving the impression that this is the sort of vibe they need to not look totally exhausted from being at the tail end of the tour.
Despite them not really connecting with me personally, I can’t deny that this performance has been a roaring success for KOYO, they’ve gotten everything they could have wanted out of a show and can see the rest of the tour out knowing that Eindhoven fucking loved em.
- KOYO’s new album, ‘Barely Here‘, will be released on 8 May via Pure Noise Records.
Arm’s Length opt to walk onto the tune of ‘Iris’ by Goo Goo Dolls before getting straight into their first song ‘Funny Face’, and I can feel the hype in the atmosphere all around me! Crowd surfing is already in action, people here aren’t messing about, it’s time for some fucking fun shenanigans!
The band seem almost taken back by how loudly the crowd is screaming the words back at them too, this is the sort of live show experience I absolutely live for; big enough for a huge crowd vibe but intimate enough to see the band’s reaction to the chaos unfolding in front of them. The centre mass of the crowd is a miasmic sea of flailing arms and bouncing heads, seeing this so soon into the set is genuinely fantastic: welcome to the Netherlands boys.
It’s one thing to see a band playing their hearts out and sounding great while doing it but it goes to a whole new level when you can see everyone around you going absolutely insane over it. Seeing the singer pop out his in ear monitors with a massive grin on his face just so he can hear the crowd shouting the words loud and clear genuinely fills me with joy, you can see exactly how much he is absolutely buzzing off doing this.
A brief moment of quiet is pierced by some loud Brits screaming “Yorkshire! Yorkshire!” out of nowhere, as it turns out moving away from the North of England doesn’t seem to do much to get away from that haha. At first I did think the band would be a bit cautious about people jumping on stage because it does get a bit risky but considering they’re encouraging it in almost every song, they’re just fanning the flames instead!
One thing that stands out to me about this show compared to their slot supporting Hot Mulligan a while back is the staggering difference in confidence from the band. They’re still very much the humble guys as before but there’s a distinctly stronger vibe that they can rely on the crowd knowing them properly and being able to sing along. ‘Fatal Flaw’ goes down a storm and the stage diving antics grow even fiercer along with the crowd screaming the words so loud that it drowns the band out.
A genuinely incredible show from Arm’s Length though; I’m so happy to see them absolutely smashing a headliner tour like this and hopefully it’ll be a solid signal that they shouldn’t stay away too long. Easily one of my favourite discoveries of recent years: great music, great band, great vibes.
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